Reclaimed Wood Bench With a Story

I love when old pieces of furniture have a backstory and this reclaimed wood bench we just made has the neatest origin story.

The benchtop came out of a 250-year-old carriage house where it had been a windowsill for possibly centuries.

A windowsill!

Whoever thought a windowsill would have the starring role in a reclaimed bench story? It wasn’t on my bingo card, that’s for sure.

Did you notice that I used the words “possibly centuries” to describe how old the windowsill was?

Gold stars for paying attention.

It’s tricky to put an exact date on lumber in this situation.

I do have a few clues.

According to our local historical society, the window is a 6 pane over 6 pane, federal style that was popular from the late 1700s to around 1820. This tracks with the age of the building which we presume to be built around the same time as our house, which is the 1780s.

The lumber the windowsill is made from appears to be similar in size and appearance to the floorboards in our house. It’s a full 12 inches wide and 1 inch thick.

It was installed with square nails. While square nails are still manufactured today, they fell out of favor when cheaper round or wire nails were invented in the 1880s.

The board was also mortared into the window well and we didn’t see evidence that the area around the window had been repointed.

None of this is conclusive, but I do feel comfortable saying that the windowsill is very, very old.

It was also very, very rotten – at least on the ends.

This rot likely occurred due to moisture intrusion. The window was rotten too.

We couldn’t reinstall the windowsill when we were done repointing the stones around the window due to that rot. We would have had to trim the rotten parts off each end and that would have made the board too short to reuse.

We don’t cry over rotten wood even if we want to.

Instead, we pivot and see how we can salvage this situation by making a reclaimed bench out of a windowsill.

Thankfully, I had been hoarding a set of 16-inch hairpin legs in the attic. You just never know when you’ll need hairpin legs. Am I right or am I right?

I might have created a different bench had we not had these legs. It’s hard to ignore free and easy to install when you already have a long to-do list.

We cut the rotten ends off the board, which still left approximately 30 inches of solid wood.

I had previously scrubbed the board clean, so after it was dry I carefully sanded it just to remove any snags. I didn’t want to take out the patina.

I didn’t need to worry too hard about that. The stains you see were not surface level. They are deep!

Since all of the stains and marks seemed to be one with the board, I decided to embrace the character and not stain over them. I just sealed the board with polyurethane in a satin finish to protect it.

I also left the square nail heads intact on the board. Don’t worry. We snipped the metal off on the other side so that they wouldn’t hurt anyone. Safety first.

The board is marked, gouged, and even cracked in one spot, which means it has survived and is perfectly imperfect.

And now it can start its second act as a reclaimed wood bench full of character.

I love a story with a happy ending, don’t you?

What do you think of my reclaimed wood bench? I’d love to know. Please leave a comment on this blog post, email us here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Thanks for being here today. I appreciate you. If you like benches, we could be fast friends. Here are some other blog posts you might enjoy. 

Wood Deacon’s Bench Makeover

DIY Charging Bench for Electronic Devices

Petite Bench Works As a Coffee Table

New Pillows For Our Built-In Living Room Benches

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